HitQuarters
Encyclopedia
HitQuarters is an international music industry publication and contact database founded in 1999. It is noted for in-depth interviews with industry figures, with past subjects including Simon Cowell
, Martin Kierszenbaum
, Jason Flom
, Diane Warren
, Peter Edge
, Ron Fair
and RedOne
, as well as its A&R and manager contact directory, free artist promo pages, demo reviews and A&R chart. It is the sister site to the songwriting tip sheet SongQuarters.
To this aim the website features an extensive contact database known as HitTracker, where users can find contact information for A&R, publishers, managers, producers and songwriters based on their track records, a news bulletin service, free artist promo pages, demo review feature judged by A&Rs, producers and managers, and an archive of several hundred interviews with industry figures that are geared towards offering constructive career advice and industry know-how.
Members of HitQuarters that have gone on to find success have included Christelle, The Knife
, Dominique Young Unique, Bobby Creekwater
, Lesley Roy
and State of Shock
.
s, producers, managers, songwriters, promoters and publishers. Past interviewees have included pop impresario and entertainment mogul Simon Cowell
, industry executives and A&R Martin Kierszenbaum
, Mike Caren
, Jason Flom
, Peter Edge
, Chris Hicks
, Richard Russell
, Miles Leonard
and Ron Fair
, managers Jonathan Dickins
, Dumi
, Louis Walsh
and Eric Härle, songwriters Diane Warren
, Wayne Hector
, Rami Yacoub
and Andreas Carlsson
, producers RedOne
, Chris Braide
, Steve Mac
, JR Rotem, Richard X
and Phil Ek
, and songwriter, producer and A&R Linda Perry
.
The website also runs a regular demo review feature where a changing panel of industry experts review songs uploaded to the site by unsigned artists, assessing their hit potential and offering advice on how the tracks can be improved. Past judges have included Visible Noise
CEO Julie Weir, and producers Colin Richardson
and Eddie Galan
and producer and publisher Steve "Blast" Wills.
become the first woman to top HitQuarters' World Top 100 A&R Chart, a considerable achievement in what is traditionally a male dominated field. Other #1s have included Clive Davis
, Tommy Mottola
, Dr. Dre
and Mark Williams.
for "songwriting leads to major and developing artists". SongQuarters shares the same contact directory as HitQuarters and its members automatically have access to the HitQuarters site.
SongQuarters is a subscription based service with 7-day trials available for those wanting to try it out first.
The songwriting leads are split into three categories according to the level of the artist they relate to: 'Top 500', 'Newly Signed and Developing' and 'Unsigned and Up-and-coming'.
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...
, Martin Kierszenbaum
Martin Kierszenbaum
Martin Kierszenbaum is a graduate of the University of Michigan and head of A&R at Interscope Records and president of Interscope's subsidiary imprint Cherrytree Records...
, Jason Flom
Jason Flom
Jason Flom is an American music industry executive. He has served as the Chairman and CEO of music labels including Atlantic Records, Virgin Records, and the Capitol Music Group. In 1995, he founded Lava Records...
, Diane Warren
Diane Warren
Diane Eve Warren , is a US songwriter. Her songs have received six Academy Award nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, including one win and seven Grammy Award nominations, including one win. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001...
, Peter Edge
Peter Edge
Peter Edge is a British music executive. He currently serves as CEO of the RCA Records. He became head of the company following Doug Morris' arrival as head of Sony Music Entertainment. -Career:...
, Ron Fair
Ron Fair
Ron Fair is a veteran A&R executive, record producer arranger, recording engineer and songwriter. In a career that has spanned over 30 years at major record labels he has produced and arranged hits for several artists, but he is best known as a "guru/mentor", guiding the careers of unknown artists...
and RedOne
RedOne
Nadir Khayat , known by the stage name RedOne, is a Moroccan producer and songwriter. Renowned for co-producing hit singles such as "Just Dance", "Poker Face", "LoveGame", "Bad Romance", "Alejandro" and "Judas", he is attributed by some as the key to Lady Gaga's success...
, as well as its A&R and manager contact directory, free artist promo pages, demo reviews and A&R chart. It is the sister site to the songwriting tip sheet SongQuarters.
Contact directory
The website hosts a enormous music industry directory that includes regularly updated contact info for A&Rs, publishers, managers, songwriters and publishers. The directory is distinctive for including 'track records' for each indivual entry. The idea behind this is that users can judge the value of a particular contact by reviewing their past successes. It also means that users are able to search for a particular artist and find out the appropriate A&R, manager, producer etc. associated with that act.Focus on aiding unsigned and independent
The website has a strong focus on offering unsigned and independent artists, songwriters and producers information and tools to help develop their music careers, whether through attracting the attentions of record label A&R and management, pitching songs and tracks, releasing and marketing music independently, or just learning more about how the music industry works.To this aim the website features an extensive contact database known as HitTracker, where users can find contact information for A&R, publishers, managers, producers and songwriters based on their track records, a news bulletin service, free artist promo pages, demo review feature judged by A&Rs, producers and managers, and an archive of several hundred interviews with industry figures that are geared towards offering constructive career advice and industry know-how.
Members of HitQuarters that have gone on to find success have included Christelle, The Knife
The Knife
The Knife are a Swedish electronic music duo from Gothenburg, formed in 1999. The group consists of siblings Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer, who together also run their own record company, Rabid Records. They first received international attention after their song "Heartbeats", covered by...
, Dominique Young Unique, Bobby Creekwater
Bobby Creekwater
Bobby Creekwater is an American rapper and hip-hop producer from Atlanta, Georgia who is a former member of Shady Records.-Biography:...
, Lesley Roy
Lesley Roy
Lesley Roy is a pop / rock singer-songwriter and guitarist from Balbriggan in Dublin, Ireland. She is signed with Religion Music and is licensed with Jive Records.-Career and Unbeautiful :...
and State of Shock
State of Shock (band)
State of Shock is a Canadian-based band from Vancouver, British Columbia. They made their debut in June 2004 with their album Guilty by Association....
.
Interviews and features
One of HitQuarters' most prominent features is its weekly in-depth interviews with major industry figures such as A&RA&R
Artists and repertoire is the division of a record label that is responsible for talent scouting and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists. It also acts as a liaison between artists and the record label.- Finding talent :...
s, producers, managers, songwriters, promoters and publishers. Past interviewees have included pop impresario and entertainment mogul Simon Cowell
Simon Cowell
Simon Phillip Cowell is an English A&R executive, television producer, entrepreneur, and television personality. He is known in the United Kingdom and United States for his role as a talent judge on TV shows such as Pop Idol, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent and American Idol...
, industry executives and A&R Martin Kierszenbaum
Martin Kierszenbaum
Martin Kierszenbaum is a graduate of the University of Michigan and head of A&R at Interscope Records and president of Interscope's subsidiary imprint Cherrytree Records...
, Mike Caren
Mike Caren
Mike Caren is an American Record Producer, Executive Vice President of A&R for Atlantic Records and Co-President of Elektra Records. After completing jobs with SRC/Loud Records and Ruthless Records, he started his career at Atlantic in 1995 at the age of seventeen as Manager of Rap Marketing for...
, Jason Flom
Jason Flom
Jason Flom is an American music industry executive. He has served as the Chairman and CEO of music labels including Atlantic Records, Virgin Records, and the Capitol Music Group. In 1995, he founded Lava Records...
, Peter Edge
Peter Edge
Peter Edge is a British music executive. He currently serves as CEO of the RCA Records. He became head of the company following Doug Morris' arrival as head of Sony Music Entertainment. -Career:...
, Chris Hicks
Chris Hicks (record executive)
Christopher Hicks is an American record industry executive, artist manager, and publisher. He has worked with a plethora of artists, songwriters and producers including Justin Bieber, Mary J Blige, Letoya Luckett, Aaliyah, Johnta Austin, Bryan-Michael Cox, The-Dream, T.I., Timbaland, Lil Wayne,...
, Richard Russell
XL Recordings
XL Recordings is a British independent record label owned by Richard Russell. It originated as a 1989 offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records.Though only releasing an average of six albums a year, XL Recordings has worked with The Prodigy, Radiohead, The White Stripes, Dizzee Rascal, M.I.A., Vampire...
, Miles Leonard
Miles Leonard
Miles Leonard is a British music industry executive and is currently president of Parlophone and Virgin A&R labels at EMI Music UK. He has previously worked for Roadrunner Records and been credited as signing and breaking artists including Gorillaz, Coldplay, Tinie Tempah, The Verve and for...
and Ron Fair
Ron Fair
Ron Fair is a veteran A&R executive, record producer arranger, recording engineer and songwriter. In a career that has spanned over 30 years at major record labels he has produced and arranged hits for several artists, but he is best known as a "guru/mentor", guiding the careers of unknown artists...
, managers Jonathan Dickins
Adele (singer)
Adele Laurie Blue Adkins , known professionally as Adele, is an English singer-songwriter. She was the first recipient of the Brit Awards Critics' Choice and was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2008 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2008...
, Dumi
Tinie Tempah
Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu , better known by his stage name Tinie Tempah, is a British rapper. He made his first mixtape in 2007 with 28 songs, freestyles and remixes, the album features Mz Bratt, Chipmunk and G-Unit...
, Louis Walsh
Louis Walsh
Louis Walsh is an Irish music manager and judge on the British television talent show The X Factor.-Band manager:...
and Eric Härle, songwriters Diane Warren
Diane Warren
Diane Eve Warren , is a US songwriter. Her songs have received six Academy Award nominations, five Golden Globe nominations, including one win and seven Grammy Award nominations, including one win. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001...
, Wayne Hector
Wayne Hector
Wayne Hector is an English songwriter.Wayne Hector has had over 30 number ones around the globe under his belt and numerous movie soundtrack credits, Wayne Hector is one of the UK’s most successful songwriters....
, Rami Yacoub
Rami Yacoub
Rami Yacoub is a Swedish music producer and songwriter of Palestinian descent, and former member of the successful songwriting/production houses Cheiron Studios and Maratone...
and Andreas Carlsson
Andreas Carlsson
Andreas Carlsson is a Swedish music producer, composer, and pop songwriter.-Biography:Carlsson was part of the Cheiron Studios team until the studio was closed down in 2001....
, producers RedOne
RedOne
Nadir Khayat , known by the stage name RedOne, is a Moroccan producer and songwriter. Renowned for co-producing hit singles such as "Just Dance", "Poker Face", "LoveGame", "Bad Romance", "Alejandro" and "Judas", he is attributed by some as the key to Lady Gaga's success...
, Chris Braide
Chris Braide
Christopher Braide is an English singer, songwriter, record producer published by Sony/ATV worldwide based in Los Angeles.Producer, Songwriter and Ivor Novello ASCAP and Billboard award winner Christopher Braide has achieved considerable success as a songwriter in the UK and the US. His songs have...
, Steve Mac
Steve Mac
Steve Mac , is a songwriter, record producer and owner of Rokstone Studios in London.He has produced more than 22 number one singles in the UK and had several multi-million selling albums worldwide...
, JR Rotem, Richard X
Richard X
Richard Philips, best known by his stage name Richard X, is a British songwriter and music producer. Gaining attention as a pioneer of the bootleg craze, Richard X has earned success as a producer and remixer. He has helmed hit singles for artists including Annie, Kelis, Liberty X, Rachel Stevens...
and Phil Ek
Phil Ek
Phil Ek is an American record producer, engineer and mixer. Ek began his career in Seattle, Washington, in the early 1990s recording live sound in clubs. He then moved into studio recording, recording small projects and demos for local bands. Around this time, Ek was frequently working with...
, and songwriter, producer and A&R Linda Perry
Linda Perry
Linda Perry is an American rock musician, songwriter, and record producer. Once best known as the lead singer and primary songwriter of 4 Non Blondes, Perry has founded two record labels and has become a major songwriter and producer...
.
The website also runs a regular demo review feature where a changing panel of industry experts review songs uploaded to the site by unsigned artists, assessing their hit potential and offering advice on how the tracks can be improved. Past judges have included Visible Noise
Visible Noise
Visible Noise is a British independent record label that focuses solely on British bands.-History:Founded in 1998 by ex-Cacophonous Records manager Julie Weir, the label was created with the goal of fostering and breaking new UK rock music...
CEO Julie Weir, and producers Colin Richardson
Colin Richardson
Colin Richardson is a British record producer, mixer and recording engineer. He has worked on over 100 albums, and is most frequently associated with heavy metal and its subgenres such as:*Anathema*As I Lay Dying*Behemoth*Bullet for My Valentine...
and Eddie Galan
Eddie Galan
Eddie Galan is a Los Angeles born singer/musician, songwriter and record producer, who has worked on albums that have accumulated over 18 million in sales worldwide, garnered him 5 #1 records as a writer/producer and 4 #1 records as a publisher...
and producer and publisher Steve "Blast" Wills.
A&R chart
HitQuarters founded the world's first A&R chart that measured the success of individual A&R representatives based on points accumulated from their respective artists' chart success. Most notably, 2004 saw Wind-Up Records' Diana MeltzerWind-Up Records
Wind-up Entertainment, Inc. is a record label based in New York City. It was formed in 1997 by Alan Meltzer, former owner of CD One Stop, following his 1996 purchase of Grass Records. Wind-up is currently the largest independently-owned record label in the world...
become the first woman to top HitQuarters' World Top 100 A&R Chart, a considerable achievement in what is traditionally a male dominated field. Other #1s have included Clive Davis
Clive Davis
Clive Davis is an American record producer and music industry executive. He has won five Grammy Awards and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a non-performer. From 1967 to 1973 he was the President of Columbia Records. He was the founder and president of Arista Records from 1975...
, Tommy Mottola
Tommy Mottola
Thomas Daniel "Tommy" Mottola is an American music executive, co-owner of Casablanca Records in a joint venture with the Universal Music Group. He is the ex-husband of Mariah Carey and is married to Mexican singer Thalía...
, Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre
Andre Romelle Young , primarily known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American record producer, rapper, record executive, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records...
and Mark Williams.
SongQuarters
HitQuarters is a companion site to SongQuarters, an online tip sheetTip sheet
A tip sheet is a publication containing the latest information, tips or predictions for a particular industry. Tip sheets are commonly published to impart business or stock market information, music industry songwriter leads, and tips on horse racing results....
for "songwriting leads to major and developing artists". SongQuarters shares the same contact directory as HitQuarters and its members automatically have access to the HitQuarters site.
SongQuarters is a subscription based service with 7-day trials available for those wanting to try it out first.
The songwriting leads are split into three categories according to the level of the artist they relate to: 'Top 500', 'Newly Signed and Developing' and 'Unsigned and Up-and-coming'.